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Cathédrale Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Véran de Cavaillon

Cavaillon

Dimensions
In the centre of Cavaillon, place Joseph-d'Arbaud; the cloister backs onto its south side, and an octagonal bell tower rises above the dome of the choir
Period
Cathedral group of two churches in the 11th century; Romanesque cathedral rebuilt in four phases from 1175 to 1225 (late 11th century and 12th century according to the tourist offices); double dedication to Notre-Dame and Saint Véran from 1228; consecrated by Innocent IV in 1251; last relics of Saint Véran transferred from Vaucluse to Cavaillon in 1321; side chapels from the 14th century; cloister of the late 12th and early 13th century; sacked in September 1562; choir altarpiece of 1645–1649; diocese suppressed at the Revolution, incorporated into Avignon; listed (classé) in 1840, cloister in 1862; restored from 2018 to 2024 (work announced until 2027 by the town)
What stands there
Saint Véran, who according to legend drove the dragon out of the Sorgue, holds the monster in chains in a painting by Pierre Mignard

Véran, ordained priest in 540, first lived as a hermit in Vaucluse before being chosen as Bishop of Cavaillon in 568; he sat at the Council of Mâcon in 585 and died around 589. Legend credits him with his most famous miracle at Fontaine-de-Vaucluse: he is said to have rid the Sorgue of a dragon, the Coulobre, and to have chased it as far as the Alps. Part of his relics was carried off to the Orléanais in the 11th century; the last ones were taken from Vaucluse to Cavaillon in 1321 by Bishop Pons Augier de Lagnes, and Petrarch refers to a translation of the saint in the third eclogue of his Bucolicum carmen. The cathedral that received them has remained Romanesque in its framework: Bishop Bermond launched its rebuilding, carried out mainly from 1175 to 1195 and completed around 1225, with a single nave of five bays under pointed barrel vaults, a choir under a dome topped by an octagonal bell tower, and a five-sided apse. Pope Innocent IV consecrated it in 1251. The following centuries dressed it: side chapels from the 14th century, thirty-seven walnut choir stalls in 1584. It also suffered two disasters: in September 1562 the Protestant troops of the Baron des Adrets sacked and burnt it; in 1642–1643 the vault of the apse collapsed and destroyed the stone altarpiece. The decoration to be seen today was born of this: the choir altarpiece of 1645–1649 with an Annunciation by Nicolas Mignard, 17th-century gilded panelling and, in the Saint-Véran chapel, the painting by Pierre Mignard, of 1657, in which the saint holds the dragon of Vaucluse in chains.

Wikipédia — Cathédrale Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Véran de Cavaillon ↗

Further reading

Getting there : Place Joseph-d'Arbaud, in the centre of Cavaillon. Free entry; open Monday to Saturday from 9 am to 12 noon, and in the afternoon from 2 pm to 6 pm from May to September, closed on Sunday (tourist offices; to be checked). Restoration work continues in phases until 2027.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

See it on the map OpenStreetMap Directions

Ambient sound

Cathédrale Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Véran de Cavaillon
Jean-Marc Rosier · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

In the same department

All places — Vaucluse (19).